Winter Warmth
by UnmovingGreatLibrary
Summary: After Keine finds out that Mokou is terminally bored with winter, she puts together a plan to help her appreciate the season. In Gensokyo, though, this is easier said than done.


Dating an immortal was a lot of trouble, sometimes.

Nobody had seen Mokou around the village for a week. Keine had known her for long enough to recognize what that meant. So here she was, wading through snow drifts up to her knees, carrying a basket loaded with supplies—enough fruit to last for a few days, a tin of tea, a few precious pieces of outside world candy, and a package wrapped in brown paper and tied up with twine. She liked to think of it as a supply run, but she wasn't quite so naive. It was a care package, for the kind of girl who would sometimes skip a week's worth of meals if there wasn't any food within arm's reach.

The snow was thankfully shallower on the slope up to Mokou's cottage. As she crested the hill, she stomped the snow from her boots and looked for signs of life. There weren't many. A trail of shallow indentations led from the door—footprints, old enough that they were almost entirely obscured by snow. Never a good sign.

Keine leaned in to listen at the door. No sound inside. She shifted the basket to one hand so she could knock. "Mokou?"

She waited a few seconds. There was no response. She knocked again. "Mokou, I've brought you some things. Please open up."

Still no reply. She sighed to herself. "I'm coming in, okay?"

Keine eased the door open. The cottage's interior was no warmer than the air outside. It smelled stale and stagnant. "Mokou? If I have to hunt you down, it will just be more annoying for both of us, you know."

She peeked into the kitchen, but there wasn't much to see except a half-eaten meal, frozen on the table. Who knew how long it had been there.

She checked the living room, but it was just as empty. No surprise there. Mokou almost never had company, so the room was rarely used as anything but another napping spot.

With mounting annoyance, she opened the door to Mokou's bedroom.

The good news was that she immediately spotted Mokou. The bad news was that Mokou was curled up on the floor, wearing only an undershirt and bloomers. Her knees were clasped to her chest. She looked pale, and gaunt. Well, more gaunt than usual. She also wasn't, at a quick glance, breathing.

"Mokou!" Keine shoved the basket aside and rushed over to shake Mokou's shoulder. Her skin felt cold, but there was some heat under there. Somewhere. "Mokou! Wake up!"

Mokou didn't respond. For a few seconds, Keine dared to wonder if maybe, _maybe_ she'd finally managed to shake off the Hourai Elixir for good. But, then Mokou coughed, a weak, wheezing sound that still managed to shake her whole body. She opened her eyes, glanced up, and croaked out, "Oh. Hey, Keine."

"Don't you 'hey' me, young lady!" Some teacher mannerisms were hard to turn off. "You look half-dead! How long have you been laying here?!"

Mokou sat there for a few seconds without answering. When it became obvious that Keine wasn't going to relent, she grumbled and rubbed her eyes. "I dunno. What day is it?"

"… it's Sunday."

"I mean, the date."

"December 21st."

Mokou opened her mouth again, but Keine had been through this routine often enough to know what question came next. "And no, you haven't been laying here for a full year, because I just saw you a week and a half ago."

"Then I guess it's been four days." Mokou slowly rolled over onto her back and unfolded her body. Half a dozen joints creaked in protest. "Five, maybe?"

"Have you eaten anything?"

"Mmh." Mokou gave a half shrug. "I had some squirrel, uh. … the day after that last time I saw you." She yawned and stretched, mumbling, "Think I died since then, though, so I'm not sure how that works into it."

Keine crossed her arms, frowning down at Mokou with her very best stern teacher face. She'd seen this before. Once Mokou got into this kind of mood—completely failing to take care of herself, laying in one place for days on end—the downward spiral could continue for a while. Merely leaving a care package wasn't going to cut it this time. She crouched down and tugged on one of Mokou's hands. "Come on, get up and put some clothes on."

"Why?"

"Because, you're coming with me back to the village. I can see that I have a lot of work to do."

* * *

Mokou sat on the floor of Keine's house, and she _brooded_.

Keine hadn't let her off easily. After dragging her all the way into the village, she'd gone straight into caretaker mode—making Mokou take a hot bath, feeding her some soup, and brushing her hair. Mokou had to admit that it had felt nice, but that only made it worse in some ways. She'd had a deep, respectable sort of misery built up before Keine had found her. She'd steeped in it. Being dragged out of it permanently, her first instinct was to pout.

Plus, after cleaning her hair for the first time in a month, her scalp felt cold. So there was that too.

"I don't see why it's any problem of yours," Mokou said, brushing her fingers through her hair. "I skip meals all the time. It doesn't hurt me any."

Keine had started fussing over a clipboard, and it seemed to have her full attention now. Distractedly, she mumbled, "Dear, you were curled up on the floor."

"Is that your main problem? If you'd prefer, I can lay around in bed instead."

"You were _nearly dead_."

"I die all the time. I'll get over it."

Keine held Mokou's gaze, in a very teacher-y 'don't try my patience' sort of way. "Mokou, I've known you for long enough to realize what's going on. You've lived so long that most things leave you bored, and you couldn't find any reason to get out of bed, right?"

"Doesn't have anything to do with me being old. I just don't have anything to do right now."

"Then let's fix that." Keine approached and bent down to shove the clipboard in Mokou's face. "Here."

Mokou squinted at it, too close to read the thing. "What's this?"

"Just take a look, please."

"Fine." Mokou tugged the clipboard out of Keine's hand and glanced over it. There was long list on the paper, printed in Keine's tidy, familiar handwriting. " _'Build a snowman. Drink hot sake while watching the snow. Go to a hot spring.'_ … what's all this supposed to be?"

"You're bored. So, I made a list of things that we can do together to enjoy the winter."

Mokou groaned and slumped to the floor, dropping the clipboard onto her chest. On one hand, she appreciated Keine's concern. On the other hand, she didn't expect this to go anywhere good. She'd been alive for 1300 years. That was a _lot_ of time to get over the appeal of things like watching snow, drinking sake, and sitting around in hot water. "Can't I just lay on the floor and freeze to death in peace?"

"Mokou." Keine's voice was sharper now. She leaned in over Mokou. "I don't like seeing you like that. It's been a while since we've spent any time together, anyway. If you won't do it for yourself. … can you please do it for me?"

Mokou lingered there, pouting. It was all for show, though. When Keine asked like that, she couldn't really say no. She tilted the list up just enough to peek at its contents again, then sighed in defeat. "I guess making a snowman wouldn't be so bad."

Keine's mood instantly recovered. "Oh, good choice! I just happen to have everything that we need, too." Keine took the clipboard away and gave Mokou a little tap on the belly with it. "The day's already halfway over, so we shouldn't waste any more time. Get up and get dressed, please."

* * *

If cornered and asked very directly, Keine would probably admit that her reasons for loving the winter weren't entirely selfless.

It was a pretty convenient season to be a therianthrope, after all. On full moons during the summer, she practically had to sneak out of the village, weaving her way between stumbling drunkards, late-night lovers' rendezvous, kids catching fireflies, and dozens of other hazards. Sometimes it felt like half the village was out and about. In the winter, on the other hand, she had the night to herself. There was nothing to worry about except obscuring the snow-filled footprints that led from her front door to the edge of the village.

That wasn't all, though. Maybe that had gotten her started, but she'd learned to appreciate the winter for its own merits. No other season, for example, could possibly let her feel as cozy as she did right now, bundled up in a coat and holding Mokou's mitten-wrapped hand in her own.

They stepped out into the space behind the building, which served as a combination of her backyard and the school's playground. "Here we are." Reluctantly releasing Mokou's hand, Keine took a step away, then held up the bag she was carrying. "Carrots, a few articles of clothing, and some charcoal. That should be everything we need, right?"

Mokou crouched down to make a snowball. "Did you make a checklist for that too?"

"There's nothing wrong with being organized." Keine sat the bag aside and grabbed a handful of snow, herself. "Should we each make one? It would be cute to make a couple, wouldn't it?"

"I might give mine horns or something. Maybe pointy teeth. I haven't decided yet."

Keine's initial instinct was to disapprove... but, if Mokou was enjoying herself, that was the important thing. She rolled up two big snowballs for body segments, while Mokou did the same. They stacked them side by side.

After adding heads, they started on the details. Keine found a few sticks to give the snow-couple arms, with two of them subtly arranged to look like they were holding hands. Mokou started giving her snowman buttons made of rocks, while Keine gave her own charcoal eyes. She went to the sack to grab a carrot nose.

When she turned back around and looked at her snowman again, she found that it now had three eyes, and two carrots sticking out of its head like horns.

She pouted. "Mokou, I'm not going to stop you if you want your own snowman to be… unconventional, but I'd like to decorate mine myself."

"Huh?" Mokou glanced over, in the middle of hollowing out a mouth on her own snowman. "Not sure what you mean, but it looks pretty nice. Kind of like a snow-hakutaku, isn't it?"

" _Three_ eyes is the wrong number for a hakutaku, no matter how you look at it. I'll decorate it myself, okay? If you want to make yours look like a hakutaku, be my guest. Maybe I could make a snow-phoenix to go with it?"

Mokou muttered something noncommittal, and Keine got back to work. She removed the carrot-horns, smoothed out the holes where they'd been, then pushed one back in to make a nose. After adding a cute mouth beneath it, she went back to the sack for a hat.

When she turned back, she found that her snowman now had a mohawk made of twigs, and two branching sticks making antlers on either side of its head.

"Mokou." She sighed. "Aren't you being a little childish about this?"

Mokou gave her snowman another look. "Cute, but I've been pretty busy over here. See?"

Mokou's snowman now had a bunch of pointy little rocks for teeth, and a pair of twigs giving it angry eyebrows. It wasn't really what Keine had been thinking of when she'd proposed making snowmen, but she had to admit, it would have been hard for Mokou to accomplish all of that and sabotage a snowman on the side, too.

"Not sure yet if it's going to be an oni, or what," Mokou explained.

But Keine's attention wasn't on her anymore. She stepped closer to inspect her snowman, then glanced down. The snow around them was thoroughly trampled with footprints… footprints in different sizes. Notably, most of them were smaller than her own feet. That ruled out Mokou, too. Which meant…

Keine tidied her snowman up again, then turned her back on it, pretending to be searching the sack again. Every few seconds, she snuck a peek back over her shoulder. The first few times, everything seemed ordinary. Then, checking again, she found that her snowman had sprouted a single carrot horn.

Keine whirled around and lunged forward, snatching at the air in front of her snowman. Her suspicions were rewarded. Her hand landed on something solid in the middle of the empty air. She latched onto it and tugged.

The air shimmered, then cleared. In her hand, she could now see Sunny Milk, dangling by a shoulder, still holding a stolen carrot, and thrashing about indignantly. On the ground just behind her were Luna and Star. They stared up in shock, their hands full of rocks and twigs, for just a moment. Then, Luna squealed, "Run for it!" The two fairies took off dashing toward the corner of the building, kicking up a cloud of snow in their haste.

Sunny, still dangling from Keine's hand, wasn't so lucky. "W-what's the big idea?!" she stammered. "You shouldn't just go grabbing people, lady!"

"And you shouldn't deface other people's property, either, but that doesn't seem to have stopped you."

"Oh, huh, it was fairies?" Mokou stepped over, looming over Sunny from the other side.

Sunny's eyes went wide with fear at realizing she was outnumbered. "I don't know what you're talking about! We, um, we were just passing by! I'm not even sure what happened! … it was all Star's idea! I didn't have anything to do with it!"

"And I'm sure that she tricked you into holding a carrot, too?" Keine asked.

Sunny glanced down at the carrot in her hands. She just grew more flustered. "Um, it was… it was just a prank! You can't beat me up or anything over a prank, right?!"

"Well, the shrine maiden obviously isn't doing her job. It might not hurt to teach you a lesson."

On the other side, Mokou raised one hand, with a flame cupped in her palm. "You'll regenerate in a day or two anyway, won't you?"

"It was just a prank!" Sunny wailed again, squirming in Keine's grip. Keine leaned in over her, a stern look on her face. Mokou did the same from the other side.

With a squeal of fear, Sunny threw her arms wide. Shimmering orange bullets exploded outward in every direction. As the act of a panicked fairy, the attack didn't carry much force, but it was enough to make Keine stumble back in surprise, shielding her face with an arm. Sunny took the opportunity to wriggle from her hand and take off sprinting. Her attack had raised a cloud of powdery snow, and soon, the fairy had vanished into it.

Keine coughed, waving the snow away from her face and shaking it from her hair. Sunny was nowhere to be seen, but the trio of fairy-sized footprints that led around the corner gave a pretty good hint of where she'd headed.

In the other direction, though, were the snowmen. Or rather, the remains of them. Sunny's attack hadn't been much, but it had been enough to pock their bodies in coin-sized holes. Not everything had survived the experience, either. The head of Keine's snowman, and the head and middle of Mokou's, had been knocked off. They were now crumbled into piles on the ground.

"Oh," Keine said. "My poor snow-phoenix..."

Mokou summoned a flame back into her hand. "Think I should chase them down?"

"Don't bother. They're fairies. If you teach them a lesson, they'll just forget it within a week." Keine kept staring glumly at the crumbled remains of their snowmen for a few seconds, then turned away. It wouldn't do to dwell on it—this was meant to be a fun day to cheer Mokou up, after all. She put on a smile. "Why don't we move on? I've been wanting to go ice skating with you for weeks."

* * *

"What _is_ ice skating, anyway?" Mokou asked, as they walked down the slope toward the river.

"Oh, I suppose you wouldn't have heard of it yet. It's an outside world sport that the shopkeeper from Kourindou imported a few years ago. You wear these shoes with blades on them, and that lets you glide on the ice."

"Huh. … and then what?"

"And _then_ you have fun doing it." Keine slowed down enough to lean back and give Mokou a peck on the cheek. "You'll enjoy it, I promise. Besides, you're always complaining that you're bored of everything, right? Doing something new should be good for you."

Mokou gave a half-shrug. It was new, but she wasn't sure if moving around fast on ice was going to be a revolutionary new experience for her. She kept her reservations to herself, though. Seeing Keine so excited about it, it would just feel rude to grumble too much.

Their destination soon came into view, and Mokou almost immediately got a clearer idea of what was involved. Near the edge of the village, in a wide, calm spot in the river, the unofficial ice skating rink had been set up. There were already a dozen people on the ice, skating in a broad circle. Several more watched from the banks.

"So you just go in circles?"

"You go in circles, yes. You'll enjoy yourself, Mokou. Please trust me." Keine took the lead as they headed down toward the ice. A stall had been erected along one shore of the river for this exact purpose, and it only took a few minutes for her to pick out two pairs of skates and rent them.

Once they were both suited up, Keine tottered out onto the ice, then pumped her legs to slide a few meters across it. "You see? Just like this. Please pace yourself, though. You can get hurt if you fall over."

"I'm still immortal." Mokou looked from Keine's example to the other skaters. Some of them were going much more quickly than she had, gliding across the ice at a brisk jogging speed. "Doesn't look too hard, though."

Mokou stepped out onto the ice, wobbling a few times before she got her balance. After a few experimental shifts of her feet, she kicked off it and sent herself sliding forward. Just to show off, she raised one leg, balancing on a single skate.

"Oh, well done!" Keine hurried to catch up, then fell into position alongside her. "I didn't think you'd be such a quick learner."

"Compared to flying, it's pretty easy." Just to demonstrate, Mokou spun around, skating backward for a few meters with her hands in her pockets. "… and besides, I _can_ fly. That makes balancing easy."

"I suppose so."

As Mokou turned to face forward again, Keine hooked arms with her, lightly leaning in against her side. "That means we can do this sooner, then."

"Mmhm." Mokou leaned over to give her a peck on the forehead, then focused on the skating. They fell into pace with the other skaters around them, traveling in a broad, calm circle across the ice. After a few laps, Mokou's cheeks were burning red from the cold, but after centuries of winters, she barely even noticed. At worst, it would be a good excuse to warm up with Keine's help later.

They traveled through a dozen laps, before something mostly pink, smug, and loathsome caught Mokou's eye. She skidded to a stop, and Keine had to scramble to brake in time.

Seated on the edge of the bank, Kaguya was pulling a pair of ice skates on, with Reisen's assistance. If Kaguya hadn't noticed her before, the sudden stop certainly helped draw her attention. She looked up, and flashed a crooked smile when her eyes settled on Mokou. "Oh, Mokou. This is surprising. I thought that maybe you'd retired to a cave for the winter."

"And I was hoping you'd died, but guess nobody got what they wanted, huh?"

"Well, you're in luck." As soon as the skates were tied onto her feet, Kaguya rose from her seat and glided out onto the ice. Even with that simple act, it was obvious that she was operating at an entirely higher skill level than the skaters around her. Her motions were flowing and natural, like ripples traveling through water. "I've had a few chances to practice this. I'm sure that even somebody like you will be able to appreciate the show."

"Princess," Reisen called out softly, "please don't get into a fight here."

"There won't be a fight," Mokou said. Almost without thinking, she released Keine's arm and followed after Kaguya. "If it's one-sided, they call it a 'murder' instead."

"Mokou!" Keine hissed. "Please behave yourself."

Neither of them listened. Kaguya drifted out into the circle of skaters, shooting the occasional glance back to make sure that Mokou was following her. "You're trailing after me like a lost puppy, Mokou. Are you really that eager to admire my performance?"

"Eager to make you shut up, is more like it. I'm not seeing anything special, anyway. You're just skating in circles like everyone else."

"Hmm. Then let's make it more entertaining, shall we?" Kaguya shot Mokou a coy smile over her shoulder, then turned forward again. As she continued around the circle, she leaned forward and built up speed, until her hair was a silky black streamer behind her. Then, she leapt into the air, floated through two spins, and landed so lightly that it barely made a sound.

An appreciative murmur ran through the crowd of skaters and observers alike. Mokou wasn't going to be so easily impressed. "So what? You can spin a couple times."

"It's a display of elegance and skill. Like a dance. I don't suppose you can do better?"

"In my sleep, probably." Mokou kicked herself into a higher speed, gritting her teeth against the wind as she scrambled to think of an idea. She didn't know much about dancing, and what she did know was a millennium or so out of date. But if Kaguya thought spinning was impressive? She could do spinning.

Mokou curved around, pulling herself into a tight circle that soon resolved into a single point. She balanced herself on the top of a blade, spinning like a top, and threw her arms wide. For added showmanship, she shot a short burst of fire from her hands, tracing a flickering circle around herself.

"Mokou!" Keine shouted. "No fire!"

… but Mokou was done with the fire, anyway. Pulling out of the spin, she circled around in a slingshot maneuver, then pushed off the ice. As she arced through the air, she twisted through _three_ spins before she landed.

This time, the villagers actually applauded. The other skaters were quickly shuffling off the ice, either finding better vantage points or putting some room between themselves and the pair of nemeses. Perhaps both.

"That was a pretty crude display, Mokou. And you landed with the grace of an elephant," Kaguya teased from behind a draping sleeve. "Here. I'm feeling generous, so I'll demonstrate one last time."

Again, Kaguya built up speed. Rather than going straight into a spin, though, she drew it out. She leapt into the air with the grace of a bird taking flight. Her form effortlessly hovered aloft for long, breathless seconds. A single blade flirted with the surface of the ice for an instant before she lifted off again, and again, like a stone skipping on the water.

Applause was already swelling in the audience, but she wasn't done yet. She spun once, twice, and then flew straight up, spinning dizzyingly as she rose like a rocket, shrouded in twinkling ice crystals. At the apex of her flight, nearly five meters in the air, she slowed to a stop. And, she floated back down, her garments gently swaying in the breeze, to land on the very tip of a skate.

The audience exploded into raucous cheering. Half of them stood up, whistling and shouting. Mokou's cheeks reddened, in a way that had nothing to do with the cold this time.

"So what?! That was just more spinning!" She wasn't sure if anybody could even hear her over the applause. "Stand back!"

Mokou took off, her head down, charging straight at Kaguya like a bull. Even she wasn't sure how serious she was. Maybe she'd tackle Kaguya and start a fight right here and now, pin her against the ice and start pummeling her while she had the advantage of surprise… but, wisely, Kaguya darted aside and dodged her.

Mokou kept going. She had a plan now. Straining, she pushed herself faster and faster, skating up the frozen river. When she was going as fast as she could, she sliced through a broad turn and pointed herself back toward the rink. She lowered her head further and started pushing forward with her flight too, until the wind was whipping past so quickly that she could barely see. Fiery wings exploded out from behind her, making the ice sweat for meters around.

She leapt. It wasn't the long, elegant, gliding motion that Kaguya had displayed. Instead, she pulled her arms in against her sides, spinning at speeds usually only seen in drills. She landed on a single skate, moving backward, and immediately kicked off again to spin in the opposite direction. Through half a dozen hops, she circled the entire rink.

On her last landing, she crouched down. In a great gout of flame, she leapt straight into the air, shooting higher than Kaguya had dared to go. She lingered near the apex for a moment, backlit by the afternoon sun and framed by wings of fire. Then, she dove back down, letting gravity get its hands on her. She kept a single foot outstretched to catch herself.

Mokou landed with a deafening _crack_ of metal-on-ice. It echoed across the nearby storefronts. Again, the crowd leapt to their feet and started applauding.

Mokou allowed herself a smug glance toward Kaguya before she grinned over to Keine. "See? No fighting. I've got my own ways of kicking her butt."

Keine opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, the river's entire surface let out a tortured groan. The air shook like there was an earthquake. Mokou looked down just in time to see a crack, as thick as her thumb, spread out from her skate.

"Mokou!" Keine shouted. "Get off of there! It's about to—!"

Keine's last few words were drowned out by the apocalyptic roar of the river's surface exploding into jagged chunks of ice. Mokou scrambled to brake herself with her flight, but she was a moment too late. She plunged into frigid water.

* * *

"Are you sure that you're feeling okay?" Keine asked, as they walked up the steps into the school building. "That water had to have been freezing..."

"'m fine," Mokou said. Keine would be happier not knowing the details, anyway. Plunging into a frozen river wasn't good for _anybody's_ health, but it wasn't anything the Hourai Elixir couldn't fix. Plus, now that she'd been moving for a while, she felt as good as new, anyway. No longer even a little bit frozen.

Keine opened the door to her living area and held it wide, gesturing Mokou inside. "After those last two attempts… I think it would be best to keep it simple this time," she said, with a thin smile. "How about we just make some hot drinks and sit together while we warm up?"

Mokou opened her mouth to complain… and reconsidered. Even she couldn't find anything wrong about that plan. Perhaps more importantly, she felt like she owed Keine this one. She wasn't certain, but she had the sneaking suspicion that the skating rink's collapse might have been related to all the fire she was slinging around. "Sake? If we're staying inside for the rest of the day anyway."

"Warm sake it is, then. … I used the last of my firewood heating the water for your bath, though. We'll need to chop some more. But, then, we can warm back up under a blanket with a good drink. Doesn't that sound nice?"

"Uh-huh. Where's your axe?"

"It's in the closet by the doorway."

"I'll take care of the firewood, then." That prospect actually did lift Mokou's spirits a little. Splitting wood was the kind of chore that most people dreaded, but she didn't mind it. Nice, simple, repetitive. It was the kind of thing where she could fall into a trance and work for an hour. It beat laying around waiting for eternity to end, and she could be some use to Keine in the meantime.

Mokou grabbed the axe, slipped her shoes on, and headed back down the stairs. Once outside, she stepped over the scattered remains of their snowmen and headed toward the corner of the schoolyard. There, Keine's firewood was stacked along the back wall of the building, next to a convenient stump for splitting it.

Mokou grabbed a section of wood and settled it into the stump, then hefted the axe onto her shoulder. Before she could get to work, Keine stepped outside too, bundled up in her winter coat.

"Come to watch me work?"

"I'd feel guilty if I just sat inside while you did my chores for me. Besides, it's still an opportunity to spend some time together."

"Mmh." Mokou lifted the axe again, slinging it back over her shoulder to accentuate the weight. "I think you just have a thing for watching girls work up a sweat."

"A-ah, Mokou, that's ridiculous. I came out here to spend time with you, not—"

 _CLUNK_. Mokou brought the axe down with the full force of her body, splitting the wood cleanly from top to bottom. The two halves fell to either side of the stump.

"… I feel like I owe it to you, anyway," Keine said, once the wood had settled. "Today hasn't been quite as nice as I expected."

"You shouldn't beat yourself up over it." Mokou lined up another piece of wood, then swung the axe in a broad overhead arc, driving the head down with enough force that it ended up buried in the stump. She gave it a jerk to free it. "… want to feel my muscles before I do another?"

"Mokou. Nobody likes a show-off." Keine did not sound entirely disapproving.

"Your loss."

Mokou lined up another piece of wood. She hefted the axe, gritting her teeth and putting even more force into it this time. It whistled as it sliced through the air above her head, she drove it down with every muscle in her body…

… and, the axe head went flying off of the handle. The bare tip of the handle smacked into the wood with tooth-rattling force. A moment later, a loud _crash_ announced that the detached head had smashed through one of the schoolhouse's shoji screen walls.

Mokou stared at it. She could feel Keine staring too.

"Ah. Huh. Think you might need a new axe."

"It's… it's fine." Keine did not sound like it was fine.

"I'll just, uh, leave this right here." As casually as she could, Mokou propped the axe handle up against the stump.

"Mmh. We… might as well go back in, it would seem."

Mokou opened her mouth to protest, but Keine was already numbly making her way back toward the building. Mokou could only hurry to catch up. Even with Keine's back turned toward her, she could tell that something wasn't right. Keine didn't usually walk so... slump-y. They made it all the way back to the living room before Keine flopped down onto a cushion with a long sigh.

Mokou lingered near her in awkward silence. She'd lived far, far too long to _not_ know what a sigh like that meant. It wasn't so much a show of tiredness as it was a prompt for a conversation. She still stood aloofly, with her hands stuffed in her pockets, until she finally caved. "I'll get the wall patched up tonight, okay? It'll be all better by the time kids show up for school tomorrow."

"Thank you, but it isn't about the wall. I'd just... wanted to make today special for you. Instead it's been a disaster."

"It wasn't all bad. The skating thing was pretty nice. Before I nearly drowned myself, I mean."

"Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed some of it." Keine shot Mokou a tired smile. "Even so, I'm sorry that it didn't work out. If you'd like to go home, I won't blame you."

It wasn't an unwelcome proposal. Mokou's ennui was a constant tugging presence at the back of her mind, and now that she Keine wasn't pressuring her to keep doing things, she was already feeling the urge to drift back toward bed. She stayed rooted to the spot, though, stuffing her hands in her pockets and idly looking around the room. It didn't take long for her to spot an excuse to stay. Keine had left her basket by the doorway. It was piled with a familiar assortment of goodies, but sitting on the top was a wrapped package.

Keine noticed her eyes lingering on it. "Oh! I forgot to give you your present. I'm sorry."

"A present?" Mokou stepped over and picked it up, giving it an idle shake. "What's the occasion?"

"There isn't any 'occasion.' I just thought you might like it."

"Huh..." Mokou glanced from the package up to Keine and back. When Keine didn't make any move to stop her, she tugged the twine off, then tore into the wrapping paper. A single rip was all it took to bare a wall of yarn. After a few more tugs, she'd unwrapped enough to see the contents—a black sweater, complete with slightly lopsided white snowflakes on the front, and a long, long scarf in the opposite colors.

"... I know that you always keep your clothes until they're ripped to shreds," Keine said. "I thought that you might appreciate something warm for the winter."

"Uh. Huh." Mokou ran her hand over the cloth. She wasn't much of a knitter, but she knew that it must have taken days to make. All that work for a slightly dorky-looking outfit.

Which was a very Keine sort of thing to do, really. As soon as she got her first good look at the sweater, Mokou knew that she wasn't going to be able to turn around and leave Keine to stew in her failure. With the slightest sigh of surrender, she lifted the sweater and tugged it on over her outfit, suspenders and all. Once her head popped out the neck hole, she gave it a single shake to make sure that all of her hair was out, then glanced to Keine. "How do I look?"

That, at least, drew a bit of a smile from Keine. "As handsome as ever."

Mokou pulled the scarf out next. She moved to put it on... then hesitated. Keine's smile hadn't lasted long. She could see that this was going to take drastic measures.

"Look..." Mokou settled to the floor next to Keine. Before Keine could react, she reached forward, looping the scarf behind her neck, then tugged her closer. Once they were leaning against each other, she draped the other end of the scarf around her own neck and slipped an arm behind Keine. "You wanted a perfect winter day, right? I'm not leaving here until you get it."

"... I appreciate the gesture, Mokou, but you really don't have to..."

"Do too. You want something warm to drink?" Mokou pointed a finger at Keine's kettle, meters away in the cooking area. A pencil-thin jet of flame shot from her fingertip, arcing across the room to scorch its sides. "We don't _need_ firewood."

"There isn't any water in there." Keine was still unable to stifle a smile.

"The point stands. We'll have something warm to drink. Then we'll, uh." Mokou patted along the floor until she found Keine's clipboard, then tugged it over to read. "... have a snowball fight."

"Shouldn't we have drinks to warm up _after_ the fight?"

"Sure, we'll do that, then. And then, uh... we'll go to a hot spring in the evening, and we can warm up even more and watch it snow or whatever."

"That does sound good." Keine finally allowed herself to relax again, letting out a soft sigh and resting her head against Mokou's shoulder. "Thank you, Mokou."

"I'm really just returning the favor. … but if you want to have a snowball fight, we have to stand up, you know."

"I guess we do, don't we?" Keine still didn't budge from the spot. "I think I'm just fine staying here for now, though."

"… oh." Despite a millennium of experience with them, Mokou wasn't always the most adept at reading emotions. A smile found its way to her lips anyway. With her free hand, she reached over, interlacing her fingers with Keine's and giving her a squeeze. "Sure. Take all the time you need."


End file.
